“What’s grosser than gross? How ‘bout a 100-mile long wad of E. Coli-infested mucus?”

These marine mucilages, that “From Mauka to Makai” reports, have been seen in the Mediteranean since 1729, and are apparently made up of the kinds of seaweed/algal polysaccharides we commonly use as food ingredients – algins, agar, carrageenans, except, as we might figure the polysacchardes mats are home to a teeming population of microbes, some of which are plenty unfriendly.

The polymer makeup of the mucilages was amply reported in the citation in the 1995 paper by Gary Leppard in “Science of The Total Environment” Vol 165 Pages 103-131 “The characterization of algal and microbial mucilages and their aggregates in aquatic ecosystems” an this actually gives a nice rundown on the interactions of the polymers for students of algal polysaccharides. http://tinyurl.com/yzuycg6 It is about 5MB and takes a while to load.